


Pulled Tight

by hiraethal



Category: loona - Fandom
Genre: Alternate Universe - Soulmates, F/F, Historical Inaccuracy, Historical References, Immortals, Soulmates
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-04-07
Updated: 2020-04-11
Packaged: 2021-03-01 20:08:37
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 3,100
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23522827
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hiraethal/pseuds/hiraethal
Summary: Hyunjin, Goddess of passion, love, and soulmates, and Heejin, Goddess of innocence, love, and also soulmates, fated to travel the world and bring together soulmates, against the wishes of the devils, and sometimes, against the almighty God himself.tl;dr: opposing personalities, they're both gods, and also absolute fools.
Relationships: Jeon Heejin/Kim Hyunjin, Park Chaewon | Go Won/Son Hyejoo | Olivia Hye
Kudos: 24





	1. Prologue.

“KIM HYUNJIN!”

Silence.

Hyunjin looked around, a roll of white silk thread gripped tightly in one hand, in the other, a now illegible talisman in scrawled black ink. Her robes were now far too light for this damp cold weather, but that didn’t matter. She’s an immortal, what can the weather do about that?

“KIM HYUNJIN, WAKE UP YOU FOOL!”

Her eyes fluttered open and she looked around, taking in her surroundings. The talisman was gone from her hand, ink stains and all, but the roll of silk thread was on the nightstand next to her. She wasn’t outside anymore, in some stupidly damp and cold place, but a college dorm wasn’t much better, especially when your roommate was Jeon Heejin.

“Get up already! Imagine how many couples we can bring together today if you had been ready to go by now!” Heejin called out from the dorm kitchen.

Hyunjin’s hands patted around until she felt the roll of thread, then took it in her hands, eyes still half closed to “keep the sleep,” whatever that meant. She unraveled a length, then played with it between her fingers, rolling it back and forth, and even though she wasn’t looking at it, she felt the glow the thread emitted, and it was pulling her towards their next-door neighbors. Heejin said their names were Olivia and… Goop? Goon? 

“Good morning Gowon!”

Ah, yes. Gowon.

Olivia and Gowon, first of many targets for Heejin and Hyunjin after Hyunjin’s centuries of punishment for “breaking the rules of the heavens,” and Heejin’s centuries of studying while she waited for Hyunjin.


	2. 1.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> the beginning of the gods and their collapse, a heavenly rebellion of sorts, and hyunjin's centuries of suffering.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> the use of a central god and several underling angels and gods/goddesses is a mix of greek and christian depictions of religion and i just wanted to fuck around with what the world actually looks like, so just vibe with whatever historical inconsistencies there are... heh
> 
> also updates are short but more frequent bc i have the patience of a goldfish

Hyunjin ran fast in the damp outdoors, her hand fastened to the sleeve of the battered child behind her.

She hadn’t always been one of the linked goddesses of love.

The more she wanted to give the poor kid a break, the more she remembered that there were people chasing for them, and that this wasn’t the first time she’d broken the rules to save an innocent life. She had usually come out unscathed, and always safe from authority. 

The footsteps of the angels became louder behind them, and she tore the hair ribbon out of her hair, then brought herself and the child into a bunch of bushes. She tied the hair ribbon around the child’s mouth, in case he tried to scream when he saw the authorities of the heavens. A glowing light shone through the leaves in front of them, and she held her breath, checking the child over for any injuries. 

Thank the heavens, he only had a major bruise across his arms, and his clothes were tattered, but not much else. 

“Traitor to the heavens, come out from your place or face the punishment of lying as well!” a booming male voice called. 

Hyunjin only grinned a little to herself before she tore a long strip of her clothing off and bit off the skin of her ring finger to write a talisman on the strip. She threw the strip out into the open, and soon enough, there was a loud boom in the forest.

“It’s one of the trickster gods,” she heard someone say as a man in a long uniform passed by the bush they were hiding behind.

She looked at the child, nodded and winked before hoisting him onto her back, and began to run again, without the group of angels behind her noticing.

“Halt in your steps, my dear daughter.”

Her breath hitched, and her limbs froze.

“I forgive your sins, and the boy may go, under the pretense that you shall bear the punishment of a million deaths in his place,” an adrogynous figure walked out from behind a tree, nobody else with him.

Hyunjin’s hair band fell from across the boy’s mouth, and he began to sob.

“Don’t take her away please, she saved me and fed me until I was happy every day!”

The figure turned to look at him.

“She’s not being taken away, she’s being punished for her sins, for breaking the cycle of life and death.”

“He didn’t deserve to die. His parents did,” Hyunjin growled through gritted teeth, refusing to make eye contact with him.

Another goddess walked towards the commotion, dressed in all white, her eyes covered with a white ribbon, tattered at the ends, but the visible portions of her visage made up for it.

“She’s not wrong, your highness,” the blind figure said.

Hyunjin looked up to see who it was, and tried to hold back her breath when she saw the white ribbon had begun to soak with blood.

“Heejin, stop! It’s not going to help if you keep doing this!”

The androgynous figure smiled at the both of them, before handing Hyunjin a slip of scrap paper. On it was a black ink, scrawled in the same handwriting Hyunjin had used behind the bushes on a strip of cloth.

“Your precious goddess of justice isn’t as just as you’d like to believe, no? She’s been practicing the magic of the demons alongside you all along, and with that, she deserves punishment also. I know all of your sins, for I am your God.”

Hyunjin gritted her teeth, then looked at Heejin again, and the blood that had begun to flow down from her eyes, the ribbon no longer capable of soaking up any more.

“You absolute monster, taking away her sight, crowning her the goddess of justice when she can’t even come down to earth to deliver your bullshit justice without crying blood.”

“Oh fair Hyunjin, perhaps you’d take pity on her and lengthen your punishment for your dear friend, goddess of justice and the poor, Jeon Heejin?”

She looked at Heejin, whose lip had begun to twitch but she could not say anything else. Her studies had given her such discipline.

“Am I the goddess of the dead, of guidance in life, or not? I’ll take you down if it’s the last thing I do!”

God smiled at her, then nodded as the angels dragged her away, and into the heavens, before turning to Heejin, untying the ribbon covering her eyes, and waving his hand over them.  
“I don’t suppose you’ll need this any longer,” he said, turning the ribbon in his hands, the blood dripping from it onto the ground.

A thud sounded from behind him, and he smiled before dropping the ribbon onto the ground and walking away.

Jeon Heejin, formerly goddess of justice and the poor, now goddess of innocence, and love.

And soulmates.


	3. 2.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hyunjin's punishment doesn't go as intended, and while she's not sure why, who is she to be ungrateful that she can take charge of a cabin of children and raise them to love the world?

Loud, happy laughter sounded from outside the cabin in the woods as the children continued to play. Hyunjin opened the kitchen window, pulled over a stool from the cabinets, and sat there, watching them play with a smile on her face. Occasionally her peace was disturbed by a clang of dishes into a bucket in the corner of the dining room, then the sound of the bucket with the dishes being carried outside by one of the older children. 

“Hyunjin, I’m leaving to do the dishes, please leave the recipes on the counter for me when I get back!” a girl called as she closed the door of the cabin gently.

She smiled to herself and pulled out the recipe book from nearby, thumbing through its pages to pick the best ones while her hand spun in the air, fingers tapping to a melody in her head. When she was satisfied with one of the recipes, she pulled open the drawer and ripped a corner of the scratch paper, then stood up to wiggle a thumb sized piece of charcoal out of the furnace to scratch the page numbers onto the paper, leaving the paper and recipe book on the counter for later.

Hyunjin then walked outside, to the water pump, twisting it twice over each hand to wash away the remnants of charcoal before heading back inside to don a black veil and an equally handsome black wallet. 

“Are you leaving today too?” the girl asked, having already come back from washing the dishes.

“I’ll be back shortly after dinner, save a couple servings for them, Yerim.”

“Yes ma’am!” Yerim saluted jokingly, before pulling the bucket back inside.

Hyunjin smiled at the children briefly before turning to go on her way, towards the town.

“Is that the widow of the woods?” she heard someone whisper to a vegetable vendor as she quietly walked past them.

“Yeah… she wears a black veil and stops to talk to the street kids, they’ve always respected her and treated her well, but whenever someone else tries to do the same, the kids will rob them… something about her is just different.”

She smiled under her veil before walking to the vendor and taking the wallet out of her coat.

“A basket of your finest berries, sir.”

“Of course, that’ll be one trientes,” the vendor said, the nervousness obvious in his shaky hands as he handed Hyunjin the basket.

Hyunjin slipped the basket over her hand and handed over the coin before heading on her way. She also bought three loaves of bread from a baker that seemed to be having a bad day, his shop mostly empty, and also a couple tarts from a confectioner whose daughter dreamily looked across the street at a man having his evening coffee and dessert. She slipped a talisman into the back of his suit as she crossed the street, and it gave him a sudden craving for a powdered sugar custard.

All this kept the smile under Hyunjin’s veil, but she was undeniably happier when she turned the corner into a dark alleyway, and left her basket of berries, bread, and desserts in the middle before seating herself on the driest part of the ground. One boy jumped out from the opposite end of the alley at the smell, and Hyunjin only grinned under her veil at him, and he just kept coming closer until he sat down in front of the basket, tore off a piece of bread and helped himself to some of the berries, and soon enough, there was a crowd of children around the basket.

“Is there more?” One smaller boy asked curiously.

“This is it… thank you lady!” the boy that first sat down next to the basket said, and soon the group of them all chimed in with thank-yous and have-a-nice-days.

Hyunjin took off the veil surrounding her face and stood up, before walking towards the group of children with a captivating smile and offering them each a hand up. 

“Come with me, I can promise you that as long as you stay with me, you’ll be happy.”

“On what grounds?” a small girl questioned her.

“I can promise you this because I am the God of lifelong guidance, the God of death Kim Hyunjin.”

One smaller kid, that definitely couldn’t have been older than five, ran over to Hyunjin and tugged at her coat.

“Will there be a lot of tarts?”

Hyunjin smiled and laughed lightly before answering.

“Not like these, but Yerim’s a great baker, so yes, there will be tarts.”

The children, all intrigued, came closer to Hyunjin and the wide-brimmed hat in her hand with its veil dangling down.

“Why do you wear a veil?”  
“So that the people do not capture me and interrogate me for their misfortunes.”

“Why don’t you just take us away? You’re a god, you can do that if you wanted to.”

“I’d like to think that Gods of death can be nice too, so I’m giving you a choice. If you have found home in these streets, then who am I to take you away from your home? Come now, it’s getting late, and your dinner might be getting cold,” Hyunjin put on her hat again, before taking one of the children’s hands in her own, guiding him along the road.

Many of the vendors had gone now, but Hyunjin still made sure she was avoiding most of them, and turned corners left and right when she feared someone had spotted her veil. After all, there were a lot of crimes in Medieval Europe for “enchanting children and leading them astray.”

\--- --- ---

“Hyunjin’s home!” one of the boys yelled from the yard, and all of them hurriedly ran inside, to wash up and go to bed. 

Upon hearing the call, Yerim sleepily lifted her head from the kitchen counter to see the torch in Hyunjin’s hand, dangerously close to her veil and her spare hand leading a child with a rather bruised right foot. Behind her was another sizable group of children from ages varying from 5 to maybe 13 years in age, but that was a wild guess based on the silhouettes they made in the setting sun. She watched Hyunjin throw the torch into a bucket before taking up another and filling it with water from the pump. Yerim walked outside to help with the children after taking a pile of rags from an overflowing drawer in the kitchen.

“What did you give them this time, apples?” Yerim smiled as she dipped one rag in water and handed it to Hyunjin.

“She gave us berries! Tommy says he saw her buy them from the mean farmer that tells lies all the time!” A little girl said with her arms crossed on her chest.

“Is that so? The mean farmer must have really good berries then.”

Yerim still remembers what happened the day Hyunjin found her, and she believes the other children do too. 

She had been sleeping on a damp newspaper in the corner of an alley, and she could hear the rain sliding off the rooftops, but she had been too tired to care, and she was so numb and hungry she didn’t feel it anyways. She also heard someone running towards her, an attempt to be stealthy, maybe looking for a spare morsel of food or a prize possession, and when she turned on the newspaper, she found a man in his late thirties, balding, and a starved look in his eyes.

But as soon as she had made eye contact with that man, he was shoved aside and the next sound she heard was metal against skin, the scythe of the Grim Reaper against his neck, and a pale soul floated out of his body. She also realised that she was no longer tired, and happily satisfied. The veiled Grim Reaper moved with an incredible elegance before turning to look at Yerim.

“You’re dead,” she whispered sadly, then looked down at the scythe in her hands, the spatter of blood already being washed away by the rain.

“I- I’m what?” Yerim asked.

“Look behind you.”

Yerim turned to see her own body lying covered in soaked rags on the bricks of the alleyway.

“Oh…”

“There’s a life after this, and it’s not too bad. At least, if you’ll come with me,” the Grim Reaper smiled, extending her hand, her scythe now glowing with a dark purple haze.

“My name’s Yerim.”

“I know. I’m Hyunjin. I’m really supposed to take you to Hell because you’ve been slothful in your life, but I’m also the God of lifelong guidance and the angel you got assigned doesn’t do his job, so what do you think about becoming a fallen angel and joining my legion?”

Yerim grinned and thought to herself, if the God of Lifelong Guidance was by her side, nothing could ever go wrong.

“Of course. Now what’s our first job?” she smiled, taking Hyunjin’s hand and standing.

“We gotta go take this soul to hell, for, well… you know. Oh, and we should bury your body. Do you have anybody that you’d like to give a nice little surprise to?”

Yerim shook her head and picked up her body in her arms, examining its features. She had never been afforded the glory of anything clearer than a muddy puddle of water to see herself, and holding their own dead body would have been an odd experience for anyone, but it was her first chance to see how her wet hair fell in sections, and how bruised and calloused her hands were from all the time she spent climbing up brick walls.

“Doesn’t he get buried too?” she asked as they left the alleyway.

“Fallen angels have to be a little bit meaner than that, Yerim. Let’s go into the forest and bury your body before we leave,” Hyunjin smiled under her veil.

“Can you go get another bucket of water from the pump?” Hyunjin asked, startling Yerim from her thoughts.

“Yea, sorry I just zoned out.”

“It’s alright, nobody’s made without a couple cracks here and there,” Hyunjin grunted while tying together a splint for one of the kids who had a broken leg and was carried by someone else the whole way there.

Yerim returned with another bucket of water, and seeing the children wait outside the door, she helped them get inside, heated up a pot of soup for them and served them before going into the attic to get them each parcels of clothes that she and Hyunjin had put together just last week. She balanced the stack of wax paper parcels before sliding a piece of cloth over the rungs of the ladder, then setting the stack onto the top of the ladder and pushing them down so that none of them were crumpled before they made it onto the ground.

“What’s this?” a boy who had just woken up from his sleep murmured, walking over to the stack of parcels.

“We have some new kids, these are their clothes!” Yerim smiled.

“Oh, Hyunjin went out today?”

“Yes Oliver, go back to bed unless you're going to the outhouse, otherwise, good night!”

Oliver grumbled then walked back into his shared room. Meanwhile, Yerim pulled the cloth back into the attic and went down the ladder before popping the hatch to the attic closed and storing the ladder into a closet.

“Yerim, did you make dessert today?” Hyunjin called from the kitchen.

“Of course! It should be in the furnace on the rack,” Yerim replied, placing the parcels on the table before telling the children to pass them down until they got one that was their size.

“Mhm… found it! Yerim, you should go to bed, you’ve had a long day, I can take it from here.”

“If you say so, but I’m taking Jefferson to the university tomorrow anyways, and it’s already quite late, so I might as well stay up.”

“If that’s the case, then suit yourself Yerim, but make sure to not overwork yourself.”  
“Of course not.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Quick note: in the middle ages of Europe, aka some point during Medieval Europe, (Shakespeare's time) is about an accurate setting, but I mixed in some relatively inaccurate aspects too. You wouldn’t have a confectioner out on the streets because confectionary is considered luxury. Queen Elisabeth of Shakespeare’s time was said to have terrible dental health because she ate so many pastries and such. Also, the man with the coffee and newspaper is also very, very inaccurate. Coffee wasn’t a major import until the American Civil War, and you wouldn’t be able to sit around drinking coffee and reading your newspaper because most people were peasants or lords, and neither of those people would usually be able to come into a town and have such leisure time.


End file.
